This review contains spoilers
Guns of the Patriots, as the sixth mainline entry in the Metal Gear franchise does pretty well in adapting the series to the seventh generation of video game consoles, taking pretty much everything from the last entry which took place in 1961 to the present day with the original protagonist of the franchise, Solid Snake, and thus, continues his story in what would be his final mission to end all.
Metal Gear Solid 4 is often regarded as the black sheep of the franchise alongside Portable Ops, maybe because they weren't as iconic or did so much as shape video game and pop culture as a whole, maybe because they simply aren't in par to the PS2 games, but at least in the case of Guns of the Patriots, I can see why it isn't talked about as much or when it is it's often compared, disregarded and set aside to the rest of the franchise. By this point, it's very clear that the present storyline of Metal Gear was running its course, and that Hideo Kojima was sort of picking at straws in how to continue it at all, and this is why this game has a very different vibe and feel surrounding it, making the first Metal Gear Solid's story and characters relevant again and being the finale for Solid Snake's story and character whilst adding in a bunch of the new things that were introduced in Metal Gear Solid 3, and overall making the best combat and movement seen in traditional MGS gameplay... Too bad that you don't really get to experience a lot of it.
A big chunk of the game is unplayable because Kojima can't help but want to fulfill his dream as a filmmaker whilst still somehow putting a playable experience together. Half the playtime of the game is very long and cinematic cutscenes, and they're no light cutscenes either, think like MGS2's cutscenes near the end trifold, they're long, convoluted and complicated to get the first time, and I get that's like Metal Gear Solid's whole shtick being needlessly complicated but in this game is probably denser than it's ever been before taking into account that the story surrounding the War Economy is probably the most politically packed yet, it is a lot to take in and could probably not blame anyone for zoning out or not getting it the first time.
The story of this game does get sort of convoluted and none of it really sticks through, since the operation this time doesn't require Snake to sneak into one facility but to get from point A to point B in different parts of the world. It isn't the sneaking mission with some tidbits of story placed here and there with codec calls and boss fights which is a nice change of pace, but it still feels rather unfamiliar and weird to go through since the beats of the story aren't as good as Metal Gear Solid 3's specially... Also, none of the bosses (dubbed the Beauty and the Beast Unit) are nearly as interesting as characters or in general as previous entries, so when the pattern is repeated the next four times you get tired of it near the end.
I'd give them something though, the returning characters and fanservice is nice as hell, things like going back to Shadow Moses Island, seeing Raiden in full Ninja edgelord lone wolf mode, having a bout with Liquid Ocelot whilst driving Metal Gear REX and RAY, having EVA explain how the hell did Snake and Liquid were even born, having a hand-to-hand wrestling with Liquid in the sunset on top of Arsenal Gear and a lot of the returning characters, though some might not completely act the same as they did it's still overall has an irresistible charm to it as a fan when you see all of these characters together, when you piece it all it's great and a lot of fun to stick watching those long cutscenes for, and as the last Solid Snake game it does a hell of a job in characterizing him, his act as ye olden grandpa Snake is funny albeit a little bit sad.
Overall, I give this game a Please get it out of the PS3 because this game would play sooo much better at 60FPS instead of the constant sub-30 framerate (most likely won't happen because Kojima just wanted to include references to great products such as Apple™ or Regain™ Energy Drink or break the fourth wall with the fact that it's on the newest gen console PlayStation™ 3 so we probably won't be seeing but a butched over version in the Master Collection Vol. 2 not even including Metal Gear Online, so what's really the point of it all really............/10.
Metal Gear Solid 4 is often regarded as the black sheep of the franchise alongside Portable Ops, maybe because they weren't as iconic or did so much as shape video game and pop culture as a whole, maybe because they simply aren't in par to the PS2 games, but at least in the case of Guns of the Patriots, I can see why it isn't talked about as much or when it is it's often compared, disregarded and set aside to the rest of the franchise. By this point, it's very clear that the present storyline of Metal Gear was running its course, and that Hideo Kojima was sort of picking at straws in how to continue it at all, and this is why this game has a very different vibe and feel surrounding it, making the first Metal Gear Solid's story and characters relevant again and being the finale for Solid Snake's story and character whilst adding in a bunch of the new things that were introduced in Metal Gear Solid 3, and overall making the best combat and movement seen in traditional MGS gameplay... Too bad that you don't really get to experience a lot of it.
A big chunk of the game is unplayable because Kojima can't help but want to fulfill his dream as a filmmaker whilst still somehow putting a playable experience together. Half the playtime of the game is very long and cinematic cutscenes, and they're no light cutscenes either, think like MGS2's cutscenes near the end trifold, they're long, convoluted and complicated to get the first time, and I get that's like Metal Gear Solid's whole shtick being needlessly complicated but in this game is probably denser than it's ever been before taking into account that the story surrounding the War Economy is probably the most politically packed yet, it is a lot to take in and could probably not blame anyone for zoning out or not getting it the first time.
The story of this game does get sort of convoluted and none of it really sticks through, since the operation this time doesn't require Snake to sneak into one facility but to get from point A to point B in different parts of the world. It isn't the sneaking mission with some tidbits of story placed here and there with codec calls and boss fights which is a nice change of pace, but it still feels rather unfamiliar and weird to go through since the beats of the story aren't as good as Metal Gear Solid 3's specially... Also, none of the bosses (dubbed the Beauty and the Beast Unit) are nearly as interesting as characters or in general as previous entries, so when the pattern is repeated the next four times you get tired of it near the end.
I'd give them something though, the returning characters and fanservice is nice as hell, things like going back to Shadow Moses Island, seeing Raiden in full Ninja edgelord lone wolf mode, having a bout with Liquid Ocelot whilst driving Metal Gear REX and RAY, having EVA explain how the hell did Snake and Liquid were even born, having a hand-to-hand wrestling with Liquid in the sunset on top of Arsenal Gear and a lot of the returning characters, though some might not completely act the same as they did it's still overall has an irresistible charm to it as a fan when you see all of these characters together, when you piece it all it's great and a lot of fun to stick watching those long cutscenes for, and as the last Solid Snake game it does a hell of a job in characterizing him, his act as ye olden grandpa Snake is funny albeit a little bit sad.
Overall, I give this game a Please get it out of the PS3 because this game would play sooo much better at 60FPS instead of the constant sub-30 framerate (most likely won't happen because Kojima just wanted to include references to great products such as Apple™ or Regain™ Energy Drink or break the fourth wall with the fact that it's on the newest gen console PlayStation™ 3 so we probably won't be seeing but a butched over version in the Master Collection Vol. 2 not even including Metal Gear Online, so what's really the point of it all really............/10.